Summer 2013 Issue

Ageing is an inevitable biological process. Unable to resist against the test of time, all normal cells will eventually cease reproduction and break down. In the past, age-related disorders were not major problems, as people did not live long enough to experience growing old. For much of human history, average life expectancies have wavered around 30-40 years old ((Machalek, A. (Ed.). (2005). Inside the Cell.)). Owing to the advent of modern medicine and improved hygiene, […]

What did you dream about last night? Have you ever struggled to remember exactly what you saw in your dream? Don’t worry, let science do it for you: a team of researchers has built the first ever dream-reading machine! Dreams are common for all of us. We have all experienced vivid visual content during sleep, and often times we wake up to tell others about the imagery that we saw. As normal as dreaming is, […]

For many of us, our mood changes with the outside environment. When it rains, we tend to feel “sad”, and perhaps somewhat lonely. When it is sunny, we feel happier and more jubilant inside. Some people feel more comfortable in daylight, while others prefer the quiet darkness at night. What exactly is happening to our brain that leads us to feel a certain way in different environmental situations? A recent finding by Davide Dulcis and […]

Caused by a damaging blow to the brain or spinal cord, traumatic injury to the central nervous system is - as the name suggests - a traumatic experience for individuals. Currently, there are 200,000 people living in the United States with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), accumulating a lifetime cost of up to $3 million in severe cases ((Spinal Cord Injury (SCI): Fact Sheet [Fact sheet]. (2010, November 4). Retrieved from Center for Disease Control and […]